Where to Start: A Guide to Couples therapy

Relationships can be deeply rewarding, but they also come with challenges that can leave even the strongest couples feeling stuck or disconnected. In couples therapy, we explore the patterns that shape how partners communicate, understand, and support one another.

Some key themes often emerge:

  • Communication: How do we talk in ways that foster connection rather than conflict?
  • Listening: Are we truly hearing each other, or simply waiting to respond?
  • Difficult topics: Do we address important issues, or avoid them, hoping they’ll resolve themselves?
  • Respect and understanding: Can we see the world through our partner’s perspective, even if we don’t fully agree?
  • Self-care and growth: Are we taking responsibility for our own needs and personal development, so we bring our best selves into the relationship?
  • Quality of connection: Ultimately, is the way we relate to one another fulfilling, supportive, and nurturing?

Couples therapy offers a safe space to reflect on these questions, strengthen communication, and deepen intimacy. By exploring these themes together, partners can build a relationship grounded in understanding, respect, and genuine connection.

Remember yourself. If you forget, remember yourself. That’s all.

Dr.K. Bradford Brown

The day came when it was more painful for the bud to stay closed than to open

Dr.K. Bradford Brown

We thought we always wanted love-until love came to us. Then we discovered we wanted safety

Dr.K. Bradford Brown

I cannot live without beliefs; the trouble is I have too many unexamined

Dr.K. Bradford Brown

No technique we employ in personal growth has any value unless it affects our relationships

Piero Ferruci

Out beyond ideas of of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field, I will meet you there’

Rumi

Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it

Rumi

Life begins not at birth
but with the onslaught of awareness.
Dr. K. Bradford Brown
©2025 Relationship Matters - Lesley Burrows: Registered Psychotherapist UKCP, Recognised Supervisor UKCP MBACP